Relations with America's two strongest allies in shambles

Barack Obama campaigned for president promising to "restore our standing in the world" after eight years of the war on terrorism under George W. Bush. Two years later, the fighting is still raging in Iraq and Afghanistan. But worst of all, Obama has continually snubbed Britain and Israel, our strongest allies in the world. Last week, Joe Biden scolded the Israeli government after they announced the construction of apartments in a contested area of East Jerusalem while he was there. Today Obama made the situation much worse.

For a head of government to visit the White House and not pose for photographers is rare. For a key ally to be left to his own devices while the President withdraws to have dinner in private was, until this week, unheard of. Yet that is how Benjamin Netanyahu was treated by President Obama on Tuesday night, according to Israeli reports on a trip viewed in Jerusalem as a humiliation.

After failing to extract a written promise of concessions on settlements, Obama walked out of his meeting with Netanyahu but invited him to stay at the White House, consult with advisers and “let me know if there is anything new”, a U.S. congressman, who spoke to the Prime Minister, said.

“It was awful,” the congressman said. One Israeli newspaper called the meeting “a hazing in stages”, poisoned by such mistrust that the Israeli delegation eventually left rather than risk being eavesdropped on a White House telephone line. Another said that the Prime Minister had received “the treatment reserved for the President of Equatorial Guinea”.

In the ultra-sensitive world of diplomatic relations, this is an absolute cataclysm. It will affect American-Israeli relations for a long time. Prior to Obama's presidency, Israel and America viewed themselves as natural partners in a fight against a common enemy. George W. Bush supported a Palestinian state and occasionally clashed with the Israelis, but never so arrogantly as this.

It also sheds some light onto why Rahm Emanuel has been dropping lines he might leave the administration. Rahm fought for the Israeli army and is widely known to be a firm supporter of Israel. He must be hopping mad over Obama's deplorable treatment of Israeli diplomats.

America's other closest ally is Great Britain, a country for which Obama has shown disdain from day one. The president insulted the British Prime Minister by giving him a collection of American DVDs, sent back a bust of Winston Churchill in the Oval Office, and sent Hillary Clinton to Argentina to support diplomacy over the Falkland Islands, among many other offenses. The Brits are atwitter over their "special relationship" with America being over.

Obama is a product of the same radical thinking that haunted the 1960s and produced men like Bill Ayers. Through this lens, western white nations like American and the U.K. are the true practitioners of evil in the world. True virtue lies in third-world peoples of color. This is why Obama gave a speech in Cairo sucking up to the Muslim world. It's why he stood alone among western nations in supporting a Marxist coup in Honduras. If this thinking persists, it could harm our diplomacy for a long time.